Separatists may have been cause of Georgia missile row

An incident in which a missile was dropped on a Georgian village, prompting a diplomatic row with Moscow, may have been the result of a friendly-fire attack on the jet that carried it by pro-Moscow separatists, it emerged yesterday. The Russian-made tactical guided missile did not explode.

Sources close to the investigation said the missile that fell 40 miles north-west of the capital, Tbilisi, was possibly jettisoned by a Russian plane after it and another jet came under ground fire over South Ossetia, the separatist region of Georgia that is supported by Moscow.

Georgia's president, Mikhail Saakashvili, has accused the Kremlin of an attempt to "cause panic in society", saying two attack aircraft crossed 45 miles into Georgian airspace from a base in the Russian North Caucasus and dropped the missile, which fell in a field. No one was hurt.

The foreign minister, Gela Bezhuashvili, told a briefing that radar had tracked the two planes entering Georgia across its northern border with Russia and departing the same way, in an act of "undisguised aggression".

The incident provoked a diplomatic war of words yesterday in the latest sign of strained ties between the two former Soviet republics. Georgia's interior ministry said there could have been a "catastrophe" if the 140kg warhead had exploded.

"The Georgian armed forces do not possess Su-24 aircraft, nor do they possess this model of guided missile," the ministry stressed, responding to accusations that the attack was a "provocation" organised by the Georgian side to discredit Russia.

Moscow denied all involvement. In a sideswipe at Mr Saakashvili, the foreign ministry said it awaited results of the investigation and was "not inclined to resort to public rhetoric". The incident was an "attempt to derail positive trends in the Russian-Georgian relations and exacerbate the situation with the settlement of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict".

Georgian media reported that the two Russian Su-24s were flying over the southern part of South Ossetia on Monday evening when they were attacked from the ground. In attempt to outmanoeuvre a shoulder-fired Strela missile, one of the jets dumped its 640kg missile, they said. If so, this would appear to be a mix-up between sympathetic forces, because Russia supports South Ossetia militarily and financially, to Tbilisi's chagrin.

However, a spokesman for Georgia's defence ministry said it was possible that the missile was deliberately fired and intended to hit a Georgian military radar station in Tsitelubani.